Google Now now SLURPS data from third party apps so YOU don't have to

Search tool consensually ransacks Airbnb, Lyft, et al

Google has inked deals with 40 third party app makers, allowing the ad giant to rifle through data from the likes of Lyft and Airbnb to serve up "relevant information" to its Android users.

The firm said in a blog post on Friday that it would begin slurping the data from inside a number of apps for its Google Now service – a creepy, predictive search tech that Mountain View first unveiled in 2012.

Google has become increasingly aware of the rich info locked away in other apps that – up until now – the data-scraping firm has been unable to deeply mine for its multi-billion dollar search and ad biz.

Terms of the financial deals struck with the likes of Airbnb, Lyft, Pandora, Duolingo and the Guardian newspaper were kept secret.

Google's director of product management Aparna Chennapragada said:

[A] lot of useful information lives inside apps on your phone, from your favorite music to last-minute hotel deals to home-buying tips. Today, you have two ways to get information from these apps – either remember to constantly open them up and look, or get a notification, which you may forget to act on if it shows up at the wrong time.

Starting today, the Google app on Android can help you keep up with all the good stuff in 40 different apps at a glance – it’ll bring you Now cards to help you out with your day-to-day life, giving you information that’s helpful to you, right when you need it.

Users of the service will apparently be able to grant permission to the Google Now app, before it starts slurping the data from the 40 outfits that have tied up a partnership with the Chocolate Factory. ®